I noticed Mike White in the film – how could you not? – and I appreciated the simple yet convoluted story, but I hadn’t put the two together. Yeah, he wrote it.

He appears in most of the movies he writes: “Chuck and Buck”; “School of Rock”; “Orange County”; and more. I first noticed him in “Chuck and Buck”, appropriately since that was his first lead.

In general, White’s movies are small-scale stories of off-kilter individuals. “School of Rock” is the most famous, probably had the best box office as well. He hasn’t yet written anything that hasn’t drawn me into his world. I’d call “Nacho Libre” the worst thing to come out of his head so far. That’s a pretty good record.

But why doesn’t White’s name come up more often in discussions of today’s best screenwriters? I’d put him up there in the top 20 certainly, maybe the top ten. Why does Charlie Kaufman get all the press?

Beats me. Maybe White needs to seek out the press more often. Anybody else as big a fan as me?

Bonus movie-watching update:

We saw “A Night at the Museum” between the time I started this post and the time I finished. I’d forgotten that Steve Coogan was in it. I just look at him and chuckle.